This story originally aired on Marketplace, 1/12/12.

This week as tech geeks and gurus gather at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Marketplace asked Youth Radio's Rayana Godfrey to offer a glimpse into the future of television, from inside her bedroom. TV producers and advertisers are struggling to adapt to the changing face of television, and teens are at the leading edge of shifting viewing habits, consuming video across a range of devices and sometimes subverting the traditional advertising model to donate directly to shows through websites like Kickstarter.  Listen to the full story below.

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Alec Brownstein needed to get noticed. The 29-year-old copywriter thought his advertising company wasn’t creative enough, and left. But Brownstein didn't stay stuck for long; he jumped right into a job search, with six Manhattan advertising agencies in mind.

Given the competition, Brownstein decided against the old-fashioned application process – just sending in a resume. He took a more direct approach.

Brownstein: I was doing a bit of research on Google about the agency I wanted to work for ...and about the creative directors who I wanted to work for. And so as I was Googling them and I was looking through their results I noticed that there were no ads at the top of the page or even on the side of the page...So as someone who Googles myself somewhat frequently, I realized that if there was an ad above my results, I would notice it when I Googled myself.

You can also hear Amanda's commentary online at American Public Media's Marketplace Money.  

By Amanda Ly

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I worked hard all through high school here in Los Angeles. And I dreamed about going to a private college far from home. I imagined myself at a small liberal arts school on the east coast with leaves that changed in the fall and snow that covered the campus in the winter. But, I knew that my parents couldn't afford to pay for a private school. I figured I'd get scholarships, grants, and loans.

Now, I realize I was too optimistic. I didn't understand the economy and how hard it would be to borrow money for school. I also didn't ask financial questions of my guidance counselor, my parents or even the colleges I selected.

My guidance counselor just told me to apply and then see what happened. I applied to six schools. I didn't know much about financial aid. When I filled out the FAFSA form, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid I noticed my parent's income looked small. But the counselors always assured me that some of us would get grants or loans or scholarships. I just assumed they were talking about me.

I spent hours writing and revising college essays. I sought out recommendations. I did everything I could to show that I could be a good student. I got into my first choice-a small East Coast School. At first I was in shock. And then I felt really excited. I began planning that cross country move and a shopping spree to outfit myself with rain boots and a warmer jacket.

Then the financial award letter came. There was some money in grants and loans, but my parents still needed to pay $12,000 a year. I didn't understand what some terms meant like "subsidized" and "unsubsidized." In high school we learned what subsidies had to do with farmers and agriculture, not education. Even with the loans, we had to come up with thousands of dollars on our own. My dad and I went to the bank to apply for a private loan. We were denied because of our low household income. And I missed the deadline for many scholarships from foundations and non profit groups.

After all of that, I couldn't make the money work. I declined the admission. I'm now at a community college finishing my last semester this spring. I live at home. I'm hoping to transfer to a four- year college. I'm looking at public schools closer to home and I'm looking at outside scholarships. And this time, I hope that the grants and government loans will help me cover the costs.

Youth Radio produced Amanda's commentary which appeared originally in L.A. Youth, a newspaper written by teens in Los Angeles.  

Summer's story aired on American Public Media's Marketplace Morning Report on April 2, 2010.  Below is the transcript.

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Money woes often top the list of reasons for divorce. But fighting over finances doesn't just occur in adult relationships. Even those starting out feel the pressure of money-especially when it comes to dating. Youth Radio's Summer Sewell reports.

A year ago, Emmanuel Ricketts lost his job and steady income. Soon after, he broke up with his girlfriend.

"It was weird; we would get into a lot of fights on the weekend, because there's an expectation to do stuff."

He says he couldn't afford his girlfriend. He had no extra money for dinners or movies.

"When I lost my job and I had to slow things down, I don't know if she got, like, the real memo about that."

 And that's just a fact of life for a lot of young people. No job, no relationship. Frank Blaney is Director of Youth Development at Peace over Violence. That's a non-profit organization in Los Angeles. He works with high school students.

"It's a lot of internal pressure and I think sometimes that may cause them to step back, or out, of a relationship, just because they know they don't have the resources to make this whole thing roll." Read more...

Youth Radio’s International Desk looks at how young Indians are choosing more creative career paths in the booming economy.

Alyssa says she’s been tempted to follow a career in nails, but thanks to pressure from her parents and society, she’s choosing college instead.

Aired on American Public Media's Marketplace Money on February 27, 2010

Rachel's story is the last in a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace.  How has the recession influenced students dreaming about careers in the finance industry?  

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Right next to the American Stock Exchange building is the High School of Economics and Finance. And for most of the students at this school, Wall Street isn't just their neighbor—it’s their potential employer. Like senior Makeeda Loney.

Makeeda Loney: I do like to make money and the aspect of making money interested me. So I thought maybe if I came here, I would learn more about the business world, which I have.

More than 800 students attend this New York public high school. The school doesn’t keep numbers about how many students end up on Wall Street. But they have academic requirements to prepare students for a career in finance. Like taking a class every year on topics ranging from macroeconomics to personal finance. Hiro Shinohara is a former stock trader who teaches social studies. He says most students at the school don’t come from a wealthy background.

Hiro Shinohara: In fact 75% of our students come from homes where yearly income less than 15,000 a year... they're barely surviving, these are families that are going pay check to pay check. And with the recession, I think there's no question it's hitting these families the hardest.

 Aired on American Public Media’s Marketplace on February 26th, 2010. Lauren's commentary is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace.  Has the economic downturn changed the way college graduates feel about Wall Street?  

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By Lauren Silverman

A few years ago I secretly dreamed about working on Wall Street. I used to picture myself in a pinstripe business suit strutting past the Charging Bull before the opening bell.

Working there seemed cool. It was like working for the company that makes the blackberry – before the iphone…or working for Enron – before the bankruptcy.

I remember one day. It was August of 2009 right before the crash. I was interning for a big non profit. I went out to meet up with some friends who all worked in the same field as I did…and then I met a girl who was working in a whole other world…She had an internship with Goldman Sachs.

I tried not to choke on my coffee. Goldman Sachs was my Lady Gaga. She was working on some big corporate buyout --- but of course, she couldn’t say much – the information was “classified.” She got to work at 7:00 AM each day, and from the way she talked about stock analysis I imagined she knew how to use Bloomberg analytics like an elementary school calculator. To me, she was the queen bee, and I was just one of her workers.

Then the bailouts happened… And I changed my mind about Wall Street like that.

I remember watching the bailouts and bonuses fiasco from my desk with the other interns on TV and yelling at the screen. We were furious – I mean red in the face. Those companies seemed to throw around money like paper airplanes. Employees got their bonuses for losing big. And they didn’t seem to care about the risks they took.

Now, I know things are getting a bit better for the finance industry. I know banks have paid back some of the government bailout money. I know some investment firms are hiring again. But there’s a permanent cloud lurking over Wall Street and a bad taste that’s still in my mouth. I don’t feel envious about those queen bees anymore. Chasing the Wall Street dream left plenty of those workers without a hive.

So you won’t find me dreaming about a job on Wall Street. Most my friends feel the same way. The big financial institutions need to work on their reputation before my generation signs over ours.

Rachel Krantz produced this audio postcard from a meeting of the Ethics Society at the NYU Stern School of Business.

The story aired on Marketplace Morning Report on February 25, 2010.  The piece is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace. How has the recession changed the way business school students think about ethics?

My name is Janice Shay and I'm currently the co-president of the Stern Ethics society. I had this marketing internship my freshman year and I was doing the book keeping for them and I saw a lot of the things they were doing, in terms of expenses... I knew it was just the executives of the company just having dinners, but they counted it as a company expense. So I didn't think that was very ethical. But at the same time, I was just a freshman. And I didn't have very much power and I was just an intern.

MEETING SOUNDS: You can give them pressure and say if you don't agree to hear you are going to end up in the unemployment line.

I'm Terence Tabili, I'm a senior here at NYU Stern. I study business management with a specialization in entrepreneurship. On my spare time I run my own company.

MEETING SOUNDS: We can get them in the middle of the room and we can say "a" or "b"? Where do you go?

Terrence: Our company--we actually had a product that we had to deliver to a client but we found out it was defective really late in the process. If we did tell them there's a problem with it, they said that since they were on a tight time schedule that we would suffer a big penalty. I think it was 2000 dollars a day. So in the end we decided to fess up and the company gave us an extension to finish the project, so we weren't charged a penalty and we were able to correct the problem. And when I brought this case to the Stern Ethics society they kinda chose the same thing, though some kids were kind of sketchy about it and said they would hide it.

MEETING SOUNDS: But lulu, did discuss world com. We had choice "a" and "b". What would you choose?

JANICE: With our club, if we're telling them these situations, hopefully they're learning from that and they don't do that in the future. Because they're the future, they're the next generation so in the future they encounter any ethical dilemmas they'll think-- this is what happened with Bernie Madoff, this is what happened with Enron. Hopefully that resonates in their minds when they go out in the workplace.